Download Understanding Shakespeare – Sonnet 73

Understanding Shakespeare – Sonnet 73
Grade Nine
Close Reading
Skill Focus
Levels of Thinking
Remember
Understand
Close Reading
Reading Strategies
Determining Author’s Purpose
Inference
Paraphrase
Literary Elements
Diction
connotation
denotation
idiom
vocabulary
Imagery
Theme
Apply
Grammar
Analyze
Composition
Syntax Techniques
Parallelism
Repetition
Reversal
inverted order (inversion)
Analysis of a Text
Meaning and Effect related to syntax
Figures of Speech
Metaphor
extended/controlling
Literary Techniques
Argumentation
comparison/contrast
Characterization
indirect
Literary Forms
Verse
Materials and Resources
• “Sonnet 73” by William Shakespeare
Lesson Introduction
As students become more experienced with language analysis, they will need less instruction
and more practice. Engagement with complex texts such as Shakespearean sonnets will sharpen
students’ perception of the way diction and imagery create theme. Sonnets are a perfect length
for this kind of practice. Short enough to be analyzed in a class period or less, yet complex
enough to require extended and intense effort, sonnets allow students access to elevated themes
and rich language in a classroom-friendly setting. Students often enjoy analyzing poems like
these in a pair or small group format rather than as a whole-group activity.
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Close Reading
Understanding Shakespeare – Sonnet 73
Grade Nine
(5)
(10)
Sonnet 73
That time of year thou may’st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Sonnet 73 Analysis
That time of year thou 1 may’st in me behold 2
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
1. What season of the year is being described?
_____________________________________
1
thou – you
behold – see
2
2. The quatrain contains an extended metaphor that compares ____________________ to
______________________________________________.
3. Explain why this is an effective comparison.
4. What are the “bare ruined choirs”?
255
Close Reading
Read the poem aloud, then work through the questions that follow.
5. Fill in the chart with images from the quatrain that appeal to the senses.
Hearing
Touch
Close Reading
Sight
6. How does the imagery reinforce the metaphor?
7. Rewrite the quatrain in your own words.
8. What observations can you make about the word order Shakespeare chose?
256
Close Reading
3
9. What time of day is being described?
_____________________________________
doth – do; does
10. What precedes night? _______________________________________
11. Why is the choice of the word “twilight” important to the
meaning of the quatrain?
12. What does “black night” take away?
13. “Death’s second self ” is _____________________________________________________.
14. The quatrain contains an extended metaphor that compares
__________________________________________________________________________
to ________________________________________________________________________.
15. How does this quatrain reinforce the concept presented in the first quatrain?
16. Decide if each of the following ideas is making a positive or negative statement about death.
Justify your answer.
a. ___________________________ Death “seals up” life
b. ___________________________ Death gives rest
17. How is the first line in this quatrain similar to/different from the first line in quatrain one?
18. How are the metaphors in the first two quatrains linked?
257
Close Reading
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth 3 take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
Close Reading
19. Rewrite the quatrain in your own words.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the deathbed whereon it must expire 4,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
4
20. The speaker compares dying to
_____________________________________
expire – to exhale; to breathe out the last breath; to die
21. How does the meaning of the word “expire” contribute to the metaphor?
22. By comparing dying to ___________________________________________ the speaker
illustrates____________________________________________________ .
23. a. What nourishes a fire?
b. Explain how fire is consumed by what nourishes it.
c. The speaker’s youth is consumed in/by __________________________________.
24. What is the “fire” within man?
25. How does this quatrain reinforce the concept presented in the first two quatrains?
26. Rewrite the quatrain in your own words.
258
Close Reading
This thou perceiv’st 5, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere 6 long.
6
perceiv’st – perceive; understand; become aware of
ere – before
Close Reading
5
27. Describe the speaker.
28. Whom is the speaker addressing?
29. a. What does the speaker say that “you” perceive or understand?
b. What “must [you] leave ere long”?
c. Why?
d. How does this understanding make “thy love more strong”?
30. Rewrite the couplet in your own words.
31. What purpose does the couplet serve?
32. What is the theme of the poem?
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